Go Out and Play!

I know I should let them. I know they need to. But it is so hard to these days!

Charlotte Mason says that children need daily outdoor excursions. I'd love to do that, and my son begs me to let him go out and play, but I won't.

For one thing, having a 5 month old outdoors in November isn't an easy task. For another thing, while I can trust my 4 year old in our backyard on his own, I cannot trust my 2 year old to stay where she belongs. She likes to wander to the front of the house and even managed to scoot across the street to visit our neighbor when I had popped inside for a quick peek at dinner cooking once. (Chalk up another gray hair to that one!) And the last straw is the recent robberies in the area. Though we live in the country, the inner city drug scene has come barging in. There's a drug run going on and in order to get drug money, these druggies have been circling out from the city, robbing houses. Because of this breech in our cozy neighborhood security, hubby has asked me to not let the children play outdoors unless I was right there with them (as opposed to remaining indoors with nose pressed against the glass.)

Hmmmm....a stockade fence around the perimeter of the yard is starting to sound really good!